Smudge, you might just as well say "Why did God let the concentration camps happen ?", or a million other atrocities down through the ages of human misery on earth. The fact is, as you are plenty smart enough to understand, that only a wicked person or a fool blames God for the wickedness committed by human beings, but accidents and fatal illnesses are a different matter. In that context, the Bible teaches that we suffer and die purely and simply because of our human imperfection - which came about through Adam and Eve's original sin. But the reason why God is permitting this imperfection - and all that it brings with it - to continue for so long, is for another reason altogether - the most important reason there ever was, and it is NOT because a loving, holy God wants to see us suffer.